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Craig Anderson did his best to supply the Senators with a win in their Christmas stockings.

It just wasn’t enough.

Those Grinches from Carolina made sure the Senators couldn’t steal one away.

The Senators goalie made 36 saves, but the Hurricanes skated to a 2-1 overtime win Friday night at the RBC Center.

Tuomo Ruutu tipped a Jay Harrison slap shot past Anderson at 1:36 of OT. It halted the Senators’ winning streak at three games.

Only defenceman Filip Kuba, with his 300th career point, was able to beat goalie Cam Ward on the 23 shots the Senators mustered. Andreas Nodl also scored for Carolina.

“It’s not like we were just trying to survive,” said Kuba. “The first period we didn’t play as well as we wanted. We didn’t do a good job. The second and third we played a lot better.

“Andy played really good for us. He was unbelieveable.”

After getting to their hotel at 3:30 a.m. following a 4-3 OT victory over Florida Thursday at home, the Senators had a tough time getting anything going offensively and were lucky because Anderson was on fire with his best outing of the season.

The shots were 36-23 in regulation for Carolina.

“I felt pretty good in there. I was glad we were able to get a point,” said Anderson. “We’d like to get two. It was one of those nights where we couldn’t get it done. It’s one of those games where it could go both ways.

“The second point would have made for a better Christmas, but we’ll take this.”

Ottawa did a better job limiting the chances on Anderson in the third period, while Ward had help from his posts. Wingers Bobby Butler and Mike Hoffman and defencemen Erik Karlsson and Sergei Gonchar all hit the post with the score tied 1-1.

The Senators ran into trouble early. After Zack Smith was given a questionable hooking call, Erik Condra was sent off only nine seconds into the power play for hooking, which left Carolina with a 5-on-3 for 1:51.

“We didn’t execute as well as we wanted but I thought Craig Anderson was outstanding,” said winger Nick Foligno. “Up to this point we’ve played some really good hockey. We can’t hang our heads. We knew this was going to be a tough one.”

The Senators return to practice Boxing Day and don’t play until they host the Montreal Canadiens Tuesday.